Experts Workgroup on preservation of
digital memory
Following the Council
Resolution of 25 June 2002 on preserving tomorrow's memory - preserving digital
content for future generations (2002/C 162/02) and in preparation of the
International Conference in Firenze on 16/17 October 2003 under the
coordination of the Italian Presidency, an experts workgroup was proposed to
check the state-of-art and plan development as needed to implement the
resolution principles. The workgroup has been leaded by the Erpanet and Minerva
projects, under the chairing of the European Commission and the Italian
Presidency.
In particular, the
Council Resolution invites European Commission and Member States to report on
current situation and to draw up an action plan as appropriate.
The participants list
collects both names of experts involved in the preparation of the resolution or
nominated by national authorities through the NRG (National Representatives
Group), and names of experts involved in key initiatives worldwide.
The workgroup aims to reach 3 main
goals:
· draw a state-of-art of
on-going initiatives and exchange of good practice;
· draft a priorities agenda
as a starting point to produce an action plan joint by Member States;
·
define the basis for building a European network and develop national
initiatives.
This first activity was the
star-up of a cooperative-process to define priorities and mechanisms to improve
coordination and effectiveness of national and sectoral initiatives on digital
preservation across Europe.
The work has been
finalised into the “Firenze agenda” and successfully presented at the
Conference in Firenze on 16-17 October under the Italian Presidency. At the
same conference, two very interesting studies were presented: one on
emergencies for digital memory, and one on the current legal situation on the
field across Europe.
After that the agenda has
been endorsed by the national representatives of 27 countries (Member States,
Newly Accession States, Russia, Israel) at the 5th NRG meeting in
Parma on 19 November. The NRG has endorsed this workgroup activity as complementary
with the digitisation issue. Giving support both as experts participation and
as network infrastructure and progress promotion.
The workgroup will continue activity after the conference in Firenze in order to feed a cooperation at European level, reinforce awareness and consensus on the initiative. The Dutch Presidency in the second semester of 2004, will organise a second conference on digital memory preservation where progress and workplan of the “Firenze agenda” will be presented and discussed with all the Member States representatives.
Firenze agenda
The Italian Presidency, the European
Commission, the ERPANET and MINERVA project are the promoters of this
initiative in the philosophy of eEurope and linked to the National Representatives
Group. The group of experts proposed an agenda with few, focussed objectives in
response to the challenges of preserving digital memory. The focus addresses
creation, preservation and access issues, including both digitised and
born-digital objects. And also respects the interests of museum, libraries and
archives, and the differences between media format. The agenda covers a short
period (12-18 months) identifying concrete and realistic actions. This process
is an open process integrating on-going actions and voluntary efforts of the
experts. The experts have identified some initial responsibilities for each of
the action, and progress will be reviewed in one year during the Dutch
Presidency. The European Commission will submit the Firenze agenda to the
National Representatives Group at the next meeting in Parma in November for
endorsement and inviting each Member State to support the initiative. Future
Presidencies are invited to coordinate the follow-up.
First, what are the problems and risks (Action area
1)? Probably the most important task today is to create awareness about risks
and problems among decision-makers at all levels. Second, what initiatives are
on-going and what technologies are available (Action area 2)? Third, what legal
and regulatory implications and responsibilities must be addressed now and who
is responsible at this moment in time to find solutions for digital memory
preservation (Action area 3)?
Action
area 1: create awareness & cooperation mechanisms
Community and consensus building is the
first step. The initial focus is decision-makers. The expert group will work
with user communities to capture their requirements and suggestions and develop
suitable approaches to address those needs. They will build consensus beyond
the current audience, towards professional bodies and establish cooperation
with other initiatives in the field. The expert group will report regularly on
progress and planning.
·
workgroup activity and events, like
workshops, seminars, papers, helpdesk and electronic fora;
Actors: ERPANET and MINERVA projects as coordinators.
ERPANET: coordination and web services for the expert group including
forum, projects and literature assessment, the help-desk advisory service,
erpaEprints; workshops on "trusted digital depositories" (Rome,
November 2003); seminar on "scientific digital objects" (Lisbon,
December 2003); publication of the workshops and seminars final reports.
MINERVA: network of the national representatives for promotion and for
data collection; workshops or seminars or events organisation on the field like
Bibliocom on 30 October; NRG report by the end of 2003 including a slot to
present progress of the initiative.
DELOS: annual digital preservation summer school; annual
state-of-the-art studies from the digital memory preservation cluster.
PRESTOSPACE: workshops or seminars or events organisation on the field;
annual state-of-the-art on digital preservation for audio-video archives.
Workshop on “user requirements for audio-visual preservation”, March 2004,
Amsterdam.
Action
area 2: exchange good practice & develop a common point of view
Data collection on current practices, selection and
promotion of good practice are necessary steps to re-use progress and to
develop a common knowledge basis on suitable approaches and technologies. The
focus here is to identify the missing 'bits'. Lessons already learned from
examples of good practice must feed into tutorials and papers (e.g., on digital
collections, trusted repositories, metadata, IPR, selection criteria, web
archiving) and must be the basis for specifying a 'European interoperable
platform'.
Actors: ERPANET and DELOS projects as coordinators.
ERPANET: data collection and analysis to identify good practices:
description and analysis of single and collective case studies and creation of
erpatools; promotion of erpaAdvisory services; inform the preservation research
agenda (see below).
DELOS: continued review and coordination of the NSF/DELOS Digital
Preservation and Archiving research agenda; studies and papers on the field;
production of recommendations.
DIGICULT FORUM: technology watch and tutorials on the field;
contribution of technology specifications for a research agenda; creation of an
‘Action in the Preservation of Memory’ section in the Digicult.info Newsletter.
PRESTOSPACE: technology specifications for a research agenda for audio
and video archives; production of recommendations. Meeting in collaboration
with the FIAT annual conference, on “technical specifications and system
architecture for an audio-visual integrated preservation system”, October 2004,
Marseille.
MINERVA: data collection infrastructure for accumulation of good
practice experience; training trials on the longterm sustainability of
digitised scientific and cultural objects in cooperation with ERPANET and
DELOS.
Action area 3: long-term policies and strategies
Lack of clear reference policies and responsibilities
today is a serious risk in the future preservation of our memory. The expert
group will stimulate the national/sectoral authorities to develop digital
preservation policies, research/training programmes and trials as appropriate.
In particular, the legal framework for electronic resources/records collections
and deposits may be incomplete, not only for libraries and archives but also
for e-government, for educational, for research and other environments of our
information society. The adoption of a common agenda could be instrumental in
catalysing national efforts on a coordinated framework at the European
level and investment in collaborative public/private projects.
Actors: Italian and future Presidencies as
coordinator.
ITALIAN PRESIDENCY: developing the report on risks and emergencies with
at least other four cases and the report on legislation and policy frameworks;
implementing web site for the initiative and ensuring continuity in cooperation
with the future Presidencies.
PRESTOSPACE: Bridging the gap between technical results and service
implementation, meeting in Paris, December 2004.
ERPANET: Improving the understanding of the inter-connectedness between
e-government and e-citizenship viability and the long term authenticity and
integrity of digital entities; provide an annual review of national policies
and strategies; enhance and promote policy and legal framework tools.
ACTION PLAN
Action
area 1: create awareness & cooperation mechanisms
·
workgroup activity and promotion
[ICCU-ERPANET-MINERVA]
·
web pages creation and events calendar [ICCU-MINERVA-DELOS-ERPANET]
·
list of key documents and URLs
[ERPANET]
·
newsletter with a slot on the experts
group activity [ERPANET-ICCU] [the idea is to invite each expert in turn to
report about his experience and activity within her/his country]
·
creation of an ‘Action in the
Preservation of Memory’ section in the Digicult.info Newsletter [DIGICULT
FORUM]
·
workshops or seminars organisation on
the field [ERPANET-DELOS-PRESTOSPACE schedule]
·
annual state-of-the-art on digital
preservation for audio-video archives [PRESTOSPACE]
·
a slot in the 2nd
(Dec.2003) and the 3rd (Dec.2004) NRG report publication [MINERVA-
ICCU]
·
report of activity to NRG every 6
months [MINERVA- ICCU]
Action
area 2: exchange good practice & develop a common point of view
·
'state-of-the-art' on existing
initiatives, case studies and erpatools, good practice selection and promotion
[ERPANET-DELOS]
·
technology watch reports on emerging
issues [DIGICULT FORUM]
·
propose a research agenda and
recommendations on technological priorities and challenges about digital
preservation [
·
training (skills) initiatives and
programmes [MINERVA-ERPANET-DELOS]
·
annual digital preservation summer
school [
Action area 3: long-term policies and strategies
·
identify reference actors, within the
Member States, to act as coordinating bodies for national initiatives and to
produce recommendations also about e-government [ICCU]
·
analyse and compare current legal and
regulatory contexts leading to specifications for suitable frameworks for
stakeholders, in particular for memory institutions, for permanent access to
digital deposits (with particular attention to objects that are "born
digital ") and on-line registers of trusted preservation repositories
[ICCU-ERPANET]
·
study and propose suitable business
models and costs analysis and long term funding strategies for public
institutions [ICCU-PRESTOSPACE]
·
foster cooperation with emerging
international activities such as that being developed under the auspices of
UNESCO [ICCU]
·
validate and promote the research
agenda at EU and